Scientists Have Produced a Food Using Electricity, and It Could Solve World Hunger

Finnish scientists have developed a protein that might one day change the world. Researchers at the Lappeenranta University of Technology and VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland have produced a single-cell protein using electricity and carbon dioxide. And it can be "grown" in places where it's impossible to grow plants or raise livestock.

According to Business Insider, all you need is water, electricity, carbon dioxide, and microbes. The scientists subject all the materials to electrolysis, and after separating, pasteurizing, and drying the product, you get the single-celled protein. The method could be used anywhere renewable energy, like solar power, is available. And the process doesn't require any fertilizers, pesticides, or other chemicals that can sometimes lead to environmental issues.

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"In practice, all the raw materials are available from the air. In the future, the technology can be transported to, for instance, deserts and other areas facing famine," Juha-Pekka Pitkänen, principal scientist at VTT, said in a press release. "One possible alternative is a home reactor, a type of domestic appliance that the consumer can use to produce the needed protein."

The researchers are exploring the use of the protein as animal feed, which would free up land that is used for crops to feed livestock. The mixture is more than 50 percent protein and 25 percent carbohydrates, with the rest made up of fats and nucleic acids. And you can change the texture of the food by changing the types of organisms used while it's made.

But don't start cheering just yet. Right now, it takes two weeks to develop one gram of the protein, in a device that's about the size of a coffee cup. So the researchers have a lot of work to do to make the technology move faster so it can become a mass-produced product. That could take at least 10 years.